Irshad Manji’s ‘Lipstick and
Ijtihad’
A Complete Failure.
By Nadir Ahmed
Posted: Monday,
February 18, 2007, 12:17:00 AM
It’s been a couple
of years now since Irshad Manji first launched her bold initiative of the
liberal reform of Islam, as she unveiled to the world her lipstick and
Ijtihad project. I think it is time to make an assessment of just how much
progress has been made.
I would
encourage everyone to listen to the Dinesh D’Sousa’s debate, in which he takes a
frank look at this issue. Dinesh makes some eye opening discoveries as to just
how successful the Western lead liberal reform of Islam has been, you can click here to listen to the debate:
At 16 minutes
and 12 seconds, Dinesh stated:
Dinesh D’Sousa: “look for liberals in the Muslim world, now I
think you know as well as I do, that we have found all eight of them..."
Lores Rizkalla:
(laughter)
Dinesh D’Sousa: “They have joined our side... it hasn’t made one
bit of difference! And the reason is because liberalism in its modern sense has
no constituency in that part of the world.”
Lores Rizkalla: “Right of course.”
Dinesh D’Sousa: How many Salman Rushdies are there?
Lores Rizkalla: “There is one.”
Dinesh D’Sousa: “Yea right. That’s my point.”
D’Sousa is
right. One must admire Dinesh D’Sousa’s intelligence – he was not fooled by
Irshad Manji’s bogus death threats and email scam, nor was he
swayed by her charm and wit. Finding people who believe as Irshad Manji does in
the Muslim world is like finding a needle in a hay stack. You will be hard
pressed to find perhaps 7 or 8 at the most in your entire life time.
ExamineTheTruth.com has sited 4 key failures of the lipstick and ijtihad
project:
ý
Manji’s
aggressive reform has produced hardly any converts. She has not been able to
produce a single learned well respected fundamentalist Muslim to switch over to
her camp to the best of my knowledge.
ý
Not a
single mainstream Masjid (Mosque) in
ý
Vast
majority of Muslims view Irshad Manji as a “traitor” or “sell out” (she even
jokes about it!). “Your reputation precedes you”. How can a person expect to
win the hearts and minds of a population that view her to be an “Uncle Tom” and
some kind of scoundrel? Is this some kind of joke?
ý
Irshad
Manji hides from debating with qualified Islamic apologists and what she calls
‘radical Imams’. Rather, she preys after inexperienced and unlearned Muslims to debate
with while Islamic apologists/Imaams dominate the Masjids (mosques) all across
Fundamentalist Islam----X--- >
liberal Islam
The change is just not happening, and there are no signs that this trend
will change anytime soon. Irshad Manji’s lipstick and ijtihad project
has for the most part, has only attracted like-minded people, and help mobilize
them under a single banner. Nothing more. However, Muslims did not need Dinesh
D’Sousa to tell us that Irshad Manji is just waisting people’s time and money.
We knew it already, and we were patiently waiting for Islam’s enemies to figure
it out, and Dinesh D’Sousa was the one of the first ones to blow the whistle.
So you might be asking, ok… how did Muslims know Irshad Manji was going to
fail? The answer is actually quite simple – Irshad Manji’s Ijtihad
project lacked all the essential elements for any project to be a
success, which are:
ü
No
defined strategy on how to achieve her goal – to reform Islam.
ü
No
explanation on *how* her strategy is going to be successful, and achieve her
goal.
ü
No
standard on how to measure success.
ü
Not a
single mile stone defined for project Ijtihad! And of course, no project plan. This way people will not be able
to find out that Manji’s project is not producing the desired results. This way
she can continue to give a rosy picture when in fact, project Ijtihad is
achieving nothing.
ü
Get an
independent opinion.
Make no mistake
about it, without these key elements, it is not a matter of if, but
rather when your project will be doomed for failure.
In conclusion,
one must marvel at the credulous fools who could invest their time and money
and precious resources on such a project! I believe history will look back and
see Irshad Manji as just a passing fad, as the Manji bubble is bursting right
before their very own eyes, and she will go down as just another clown from the
boogie town.
Go back to Silencing the false propaganda of Irshad Manji